RedX43
patreon
[Genshin Impact] Chapter 352: Caught Red-Handed (2-in-1 Chapter)
🕑 Added 2024-12-01 09:30:02 +0000 UTCAlthough the original plot now included the unexpected presence of Nolan, which caused some changes in timing and minor details, the overall development seemed to remain largely the same.
Leaving the seaside, Werner didn’t return to the residential area but instead walked further into increasingly remote areas, behaving rather suspiciously.
“This guy is definitely hiding something!” Paimon said with hands on her hips.
“Why would he come to such a secluded place? Is he meeting someone?” Lumine mused, folding her arms and rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
Nolan and the others continued following Werner while remaining hidden within the Invisibility Domain.
After a moment of contemplation, Nolan remarked,
“You know, as foreigners in Inazuma, if we do uncover something, we might not even be able to do much about it.
“Even if we hand him over to the shogunate, what if he denies everything? We don’t have any solid evidence.”
“Hmm, that’s true,” Paimon admitted, looking troubled. “We can’t exactly kill him to solve the problem. Unless we catch him committing a crime in front of a shogunate soldier, we’d have no grounds to arrest him!”
“Let’s avoid that. While most of the shogunate soldiers are decent, we almost got swindled out of millions yesterday. If we accidentally involve a corrupt soldier—or worse, someone in cahoots with Werner—they might turn the tables on us instead,” Nolan warned, shaking his head knowingly.
“If only we had a Camera. We could record evidence!” Lumine suddenly suggested, recalling the Fontaine invention.
Paimon’s eyes lit up. “Right! President Kurisu is from Fontaine—maybe he has one! We could borrow it!”
Nolan shook his head again. “No time for that. By the time we return, Werner could already be gone. Let’s play it by ear—depending on what we find, we’ll decide our next steps.”
“Fine, Paimon guess that’s all we can do,” Paimon said with a sigh, throwing up her hands.
“Still,” Nolan added, “from his hair color, eye color, and name, Werner seems to be from Mondstadt.
“If a Mondstadt citizen commits a crime abroad, the authorities back home are within their rights to arrest and prosecute them. If he’s guilty, we can just take him back to Mondstadt and hand him over to the Knights of Favonius.”
“That’s so sneaky!” Paimon gasped, her starry eyes widening. “But, only if he’s actually done something bad.”
“Shh! Stop talking. Werner just ran behind that big rock,” Lumine said, tapping Nolan’s arm to get his attention.
Unaware he was being followed, Werner cautiously checked his surroundings before continuing toward a specific meeting point given to him by a shogunate foot soldier and Keijirou.
After rounding the massive rock, Werner entered its shadowed side, where two individuals dressed in shogunate uniforms were already waiting.
“Werner! Why are you so late?” one of the soldiers demanded, crossing his arms impatiently.
“Apologies, my lord! I had to be extra careful to make sure no one was following me,” Werner replied meekly, a stark contrast to his domineering attitude when selling Crystal Marrow.
“Wow, he’s like a completely different person,” Paimon whispered in amazement as they watched from their hidden vantage point in the shadows.
“These two soldiers must be the ones supplying Werner with Crystal Marrow. And they didn’t even bother changing out of their uniforms—how bold,” Lumine remarked, narrowing her eyes at the scene.
“Enough with the excuses. Hand over today’s earnings. We still have taxes to collect later,” Keijirou said, cutting to the point.
“Yes, hurry it up, Werner,” the foot soldier chimed in, realizing he had other tasks to attend to.
“Of course, of course,” Werner stammered, hastily handing over a cloth pouch tied at his waist. It was filled with high-denomination Mora coins.
The foot soldier grabbed the pouch and estimated its weight, nodding in satisfaction. It seemed to contain about a hundred Mora coins, the usual amount. He casually tossed a few coins back to Werner.
“Well done. Here’s your cut for today’s work. In a few days, we’ll deliver the next batch of Crystal Marrow. Meet us at the usual spot,” the soldier said with a smirk.
“Understood, my lord. I’ll be there,” Werner replied, bowing obsequiously.
“Let’s go,” Keijirou urged impatiently.
If not for the fact that they still had work to do, he would have split the Mora right then and there.
“They’re leaving! Judging by what they’ve said, it’s highly likely that they’re involved in monopolizing the ‘Crystal Marrow’ trade. We can’t let them off so easily!” Paimon said angrily.
Nolan nodded in agreement. Paimon was right—at the very least, capturing them and putting an end to the monopoly on Crystal Marrow would be a step forward.
As the foot soldier and Keijiro turned to leave, Nolan didn’t hesitate. He summoned his translucent threads, catching all three of them—Werner included—completely off guard!
“What—what’s going on? Who’s there?!” Keijiro and the others, suddenly immobilized by an unseen force, shouted in panic.
“Hah! Your dirty deeds have been exposed! Spill it—why are you monopolizing the ‘Crystal Marrow’ trade?” Paimon demanded as Nolan dispelled the invisibility domain, revealing their group. Paimon immediately started questioning Werner and the others.
“Damn it! Who are you people? Release us at once! Attacking shogunate soldiers is a crime—you’ll be thrown in jail!” Keijiro barked.
Seeing that their attackers were not some dangerous monsters but a group of young foreigners, Keijiro’s initial fear faded. Emboldened by his identity as a shogunate soldier, he began threatening them with righteous indignation.
He felt confident. Even if he couldn’t defeat these foreigners himself, they wouldn’t dare oppose the shogunate. If they wanted to avoid being hunted as criminals, they’d have to let him go—and maybe even apologize and compensate him!
“That’s right! What monopolization? We were just chatting here! I suggest you mind your own business. You clearly don’t know who you’re dealing with. We serve under the Kanjou Commission, and behind him stands the mighty Shogun herself! Do you really want to test the Raiden Shogun’s power?” the foot soldier added, glaring furiously at Nolan and his group.
“Uh… hey, Lumine, what do we do? They’re saying the Raiden Shogun might come after us!” Paimon said, looking nervously at Lumine.
Lumine simply massaged her temples in exasperation.
Nolan couldn’t help but smirk at the two soldiers. He admired their audacity—they were bluffing all the way up to the Raiden Shogun herself!
In reality, these minor grunts wouldn’t even have the authority to report directly to her.
“Haha, don’t worry, Paimon. They’re just trying to scare you,” Nolan said reassuringly.
Then, turning back to the two soldiers, he added with a smile,
“Empty threats won’t help you. You’ve been running this operation for a long time and have accumulated a lot of wealth. It wouldn’t take much for someone to dig up evidence against you. Do you really think your colleagues or superiors are all blind?
“Or… was this entire operation authorized by your Kanjou Commission?”
“You!” Keijiro was momentarily at a loss for words. His bluster was only meant to intimidate outsiders, but the man in front of him seemed calm and confident, seeing through his act entirely.
Keijiro knew full well that accusing the Kanjou Commission of corruption without proof would backfire. He’d be jailed for slander before anyone even started investigating the matter.
“Fine! What do you want? As long as you don’t expose us, we can work with you. How about splitting the profits fifty-fifty?” Keijiro’s expression shifted several times before finally settling on a look of forced compliance.
“What?! Keijiro, are you kidding me? Why would we give away our Mora?” the foot soldier exclaimed, staring at Keijiro in disbelief.
“This is for…” Keijiro started to explain, but Nolan cut him off.
“Enough. I have no interest in your shady schemes that harm others. Now tell me—where are you getting your ‘Crystal Marrow,’ and do you know why the Kanjou Commission changed taxes from Mora to Crystal Marrow?”
“Hmph. If that’s all you want, hand us over to the shogunate, then. We’ve got nothing else to say,” Keijiro replied stubbornly.
Keijiro and the foot soldier had no intention of cooperating now that their operation had been exposed.
“Fine by me,” Nolan said indifferently.
He wasn’t overly concerned about their lack of cooperation. True to his moral compass, he wasn’t the type to resort to torture or coercion—that would make him no better than the villains he sought to stop.
As for their answers, they likely didn’t know much about the second question. And even if they did have information about the first, it wasn’t critical to the bigger picture.
Nolan remembered these two shogunate tax collectors. They deliberately inflated the tax rates so that merchants from the "International Trade Association" would overpay.
The extra Crystal Marrow collected was kept for themselves and then handed over to Werner, who sold it back to the merchants at an exorbitant price.
But why ask questions if he already knew?
After all, when handing them over to the Kanjou Commission, he’d need to explain the reason thoroughly.
He couldn’t just say, I know this because I’ve seen the plot.
Nolan turned his gaze to Werner.
“You’re their partner, so you must know the details. Explain what’s going on. Just so you know, they’re the masterminds. If you cooperate, you might mitigate your punishment.”
“Well…”
Werner glanced nervously at Keijiro and the foot soldier, but their threatening glares made him shrink back.
Forget it. If they were all going to jail anyway, they wouldn’t have the power to intimidate him anymore. It was better to talk and hope for leniency.
“Fine, I’ll talk.” Werner nodded quickly and began to explain. “Here’s how it happened...”
Hearing Werner’s confession, Nolan felt relieved. Things were progressing more smoothly than expected.
Werner’s account matched what Nolan already knew. With Keijiro’s crimes confirmed, Werner willing to testify, and the illegal Mora stash as evidence, the case was solid.
The next steps were simple.
Nolan instructed Lumine and Paimon to find Kurisu, the president of the International Trade Association, and bring some merchants with them.
Having the merchants accompany them to the Kanjou Commission would add pressure to ensure these culprits wouldn’t be released later.
However, when Kurisu arrived and understood the situation, he had a different perspective. As someone who had done business on Ritou for a long time, he knew that even if these individuals were imprisoned, their replacements might do the same thing.
Worse, it could provoke resentment from other corrupt officials within the Kanjou Commission, making the Trade Association’s position on Ritou even more precarious.
Moreover, the Trade Association was currently facing a severe Crystal Marrow shortage—they couldn’t even afford the latest tax. Catching the culprits wouldn’t solve that problem.
Kurisu proposed a compromise: let Keijiro and the others go in exchange for a promise to collect taxes fairly in the future and return the Crystal Marrow they had embezzled to the Trade Association.
This arrangement would at least allow the merchants to sustain themselves for another year or two.
Hearing Kurisu’s reasoning, Nolan realized he hadn’t considered the Trade Association’s broader situation.
Arresting Keijiro and his group might feel satisfying, but confiscating their stash of Crystal Marrow as evidence would only push the Trade Association closer to collapse.
With no other options, he handed Keijiro and the others over to Kurisu, allowing him to handle them as he saw fit.
It was clear the real solution lay in investigating why the Kanjou Commission had changed the tax system from Mora to Crystal Marrow in the first place.
Still, Nolan felt exhausted just thinking about it.
Suddenly, he recalled that in the original story, the Inazuman Resistance had encountered a surge of Delusions distributed by the Fatui.
Many Resistance members had succumbed to the temptation, used the Delusions, and died when their lifespans were drained.
The key wasn’t just the Delusions—it was the fact that the Fatui had established a Delusion Factory in Inazuma. And one of the materials used to create Delusions was Crystal Marrow!
Could it be... is the Kanjou Commission colluding with the Fatui?
The thought sent a chill through him.
Unfortunately, Nolan wasn’t a lore expert and hadn’t memorized every plot detail. His knowledge of Crystal Marrow’s connection to Delusions had surfaced by chance.
He couldn’t be certain whether there was actual collusion, but the possibility seemed increasingly plausible.
If the Kanjou Commission really is involved with the Fatui, I need to find out!
“Ugh, we caught the criminals but had to let them go. How frustrating!” Paimon grumbled as they left the shoreline and headed back to the residential area.
“So, what’s next?” Lumine asked, looking to Nolan for guidance.
Nolan glanced at Lumine’s fair complexion and smiled slightly.
“Since the root of the problem lies with the Kanjou Commission, our next step is to pay that official a visit. This time, let’s save ourselves some trouble and play the role of villains!”
“Villains?”
Lumine and Paimon exchanged confused looks.
From here on, the story would diverge from the original plotline. After all, sticking to the canon lacked excitement—everyone already knew what would happen.
(End of chapter)
